Architectural and Urban-planning Process in the Russian Province in the Last Third of the 19th – Early 20th Century: the General Model and Kazan Specificity

Abstract

The Empire is the field for a single civilization, distributed from its center. In the spatial dimension, the “imperial” concept brings architecture as its visual image to the forefront. Hence, the strict, enforced by the central government unification policy in architectural and urbanplanning activity, escalating cultural opposition of the local and the global, where the elements of another culture and civilization were present. The article focuses on the architectural and urban-planning process in the last third of the 19th-early 20th century in Kazan. Annexed to the Russian state in 1552, due to the Kazan Khanate conquering, the city played a significant role in the Russian Empire history and structure, and became the center of academic, military and judicial districts in the 19th century. In the second half of the century, with the expansion of the imperial borders, Kazan turned out to be in the center of the empire. Its incorporation into the metropolis made the problem of cultural unification in the region more acute; and as the regional population was predominantly foreign, it remained the “inner outskirts” of the empire. The anti-Islamic turn in the imperial policy, which threatened the confessional identity of Tatars, led to the consolidation of the Tatar population and the reformation of their traditional way of life. In the conditions of coexistence of imperial and Tatar-Muslim cultural components, the architectural and urban-planning process in Kazan proceeded. The article reveals the common, characteristic to Russian space, in general, and the specific, peculiar to this local case, in particular. Keywords—architectural and urban-planning process; Russian province; Kazan; the imperial city; the Kazan Tatars